Senate

Rand Paul pushes for Fauci indictment before statute of limitations expires

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by Joseph Choi - 05/05/26 3:41 PM ET

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by Joseph Choi - 05/05/26 3:41 PM ET

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Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Tuesday called for Anthony Fauci, former longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), to be indicted for what the senator claimed was his lying under oath about gain-of-function research.

“6 days from now, on May 11th, the statute of limitations expires on the possibility of indicting Anthony Fauci for denying under oath that he funded gain-of-function research involving bat coronaviruses in Wuhan, the origin city of the pandemic,” Paul wrote on social media.

Paul was referencing the May 11, 2021, hearing held by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in which he and Fauci got into one of several heated exchanges the two would have in the last few years of Fauci’s tenure.

During the hearing, Fauci repeatedly denied favoring and funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China. Paul supports the lab-leak theory of the origins of COVID-19, alleging the virus originated from an escaped, artificially enhanced virus from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. He has sought to center blame on Fauci as part of this theory.

“I do not favor gain of function research in China. That is not correct,” Fauci said when accused of such by Paul. “I fully agree you should investigate where the virus came from, but again, we have not funded gain of function research on this virus in the Wuhan institute of Virology.”

There is a five-year statute of limitations on lying to Congress.

Paul’s call for an indictment against Fauci comes roughly one week after one of his former advisors, David Morens, was indicted on charges of concealing and destroying records. During a House investigation into the COVID-19 pandemic, Morens was found to have used his personal email address to communicate with the organization EcoHealth Alliance.

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